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The story of the Animal Health Foundation

The goal of the Animal Health Foundation (AHF) is to find the cause and way to prevent laminitis-founder complex in horses. The foundation donates funds to major researchers in the field of laminitis. AHF also offers information to help horse owners prevent their horses from becoming victims of the painful, crippling disease.

The all-volunteer, not-for-profit organization, located in the St. Louis, Missouri area, has no paid employees. Because the organization’s board of directors personally pays all administrative costs, all other donations received from the public go directly to fund work on laminitis.

The foundation feels it is very important for the public to recognize that contributors are truly making a difference by helping to directly fund the important work currently taking place in laminitis research today. Previous recipients of grants from the Animal Health Foundation include:

Dr. Chris Pollitt, U. of Queensland, Australia

Dr. Phil Johnson, U. of MO

Kathryn Watts, BS, Rocky Mountain Research, Center, CO

Dr. Samantha Brooks, Cornell University

Dr. Steve Adair, U. of TN

Dr. Tom Goetz, U. of IL

Dr. Harold Garner, U. of MO

Dr. John Bertram, Cornell U.

Dr. Eleanor Green, U. of MO.

The Animal Health Foundation needs contributions today to fund the fight against one of the most painful equine diseases. It claims the lives of thousands of horses and ponies, and does not discriminate by age, sex or breed. Progress is steadily being made in understanding laminitis-that is why it is so important to continue the work and to try to make a difference.

Dr. Donald Walsh, DVM

Dr. Donald Walsh was raised on a horse farm off Melrose Road on the border of St. Louis and Franklin Counties in Missouri. He spent his summers showing American Saddlebreds at country fairs.

He graduated from the veterinary school of the University of Missouri - Columbia in 1969 and began practicing medicine in St. Louis and shortly thereafter at the Creve Coeur Animal Hospital. A year later he opened the Ellisville Animal Clinic, treating small and large animals out of a building on Clarkson Road. In 1985, an associate took over the small animal practice, and Walsh moved the horse practice to its current site in Pacific, MO, naming it Homestead. He focused on horses about 10 years then expanded again to small animals.

Don and Diana Walsh have two adult children. The Walsh's four-legged entourage include nine dogs, and several horses including Dakota Sundance (pictured above).

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Mission of the Animal Health Foundation

To find the cause and ways to prevent laminitis-founder complex in horses. The foundation donates funds to major researchers in the field of laminitis. AHF also offers information to help horse owners prevent their horses from becoming victims of the painful, crippling disease.

Click to watch AHF Laminitis Videos

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